Every now and then an idea comes out of a brainstorm that everyone knows will work.

After a session of trying to dream up ways to promote Buscopan's ability to relieve stomach aches and cramps, the words on the flip chart held everyone transfixed.

The Space Cowboy breaks the Guinness World Record for swallowing 18 swords at once!

"World Record ... sword-swallowing ... Martin Place ... branded media stunt!"

Our courageous client approved the idea and we were away.

Plans were put in motion to sponsor the internationally renowned street performer and sword swallower "The Space Cowboy” to break the world record for the number of swords swallowed in a single attempt.

Sure, a great event: but how to guarantee the branding? Surely media would edit out background signage and written references to the sponsor.

The answer? A Buscopan branded collar.

Following weeks of furious negotiations with TODAY and other media outlets, the stunt was set up for Monday morning 8th February 2010. The Facebook event notifications were primed, the Tweets were tweeting and the www.mystomachache.com.au website shouted the promise of a major visual stunt.

And so before the assembled media, with cameras from every TV network in Australia (including a NINE network live cross to the TODAY show) and photojournalists from AAP, news.com.au and the Daily Telegraph, the Space Cowboy turned himself into an instant media phenomena.

Immediately after the event, the Palin team bunkered down with its photographers and video editors to load the footage to Youtube, get the Facebook links up and provide images and audio grabs to media all over Australia.

Video of the stunt was featured on the home pages of news.com.au, SMH Online, NineMSN and The Daily Telegraph Online. A range of metropolitan newspapers including the West Australian, Herald Sun, The Courier Mail and Mx ran stories and pictures of the stunt and it featured in a range of TV news bulletins during the day.

And – we know it's a cliché but – it's gone global with coverage on BBC, NBC, The Sun in the UK and other media via the international newswires.

Just how much Buscopan coverage has been generated is still being tallied up. And we're still trying to work out which idea was more important – the original concept or the decision to make sure he wore the Buscopan dog collar!

The Space Cowboy celebrates his world record sword swallow victory

The World Record event was sponsored by Buscopan and Buscopan Forte for the specialised relief of stomach aches and cramps